All posts by Bernadette Wagner

Iggy the Idiot, Part I

When my daughter was young, she watched a CBC-TV show called Under the Umbrella Tree which featured Holly and her three puppet roomies, Gloria Gopher, Jacob Bluejay and Iggy Iguana.

Perhaps our own Iggy the Liberal leader watched too much of that show.  Or maybe it’s just part of the attributes that attach to that name but the iguana Iggy was characterized as “thinking too highly of himself and unwillingly making mistakes.”

Iggy the Liberal has certainly been thinking too highly of himself and too little of others.

His support for Harper’s budget bill is a slap in the face to Canadian women.  Of course we shouldn’t be too surprised at this given the Liberal Party’s record with women.  Wasn’t it Paul Martin as Finance Minister who began the federal attack on women’s organizations funded through Status of Women Canada?  So, to see Iggy and his ilk support an attack on pay equity and infrastructure solutions that exclude women while still denying Canadian women a national childcare plan is really to be expected.

But Canadians have some kind of sick idea that the Liberals are better than the Cons.  Not me.  Liberal or Tory, it’s the same old story.  Tommy Douglas was right about that in his story of Mouseland.  Not that the NDP or any partisan organization will be the savior of Canada or Canadian women, for that matter.  But at least the NDP get it when it comes to women’s issues.  Mind you, it’s not quite to the extent that the Bloc Quebecois get it, but it’s good.

About Iggy the Liberal unwillingly making mistakes, well, I’m not sure.  It’s looking to me like he’s willfully making mistakes at the expense of Canadian women and children.

6 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on March 5, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in Canada, Liberal Party of Canada, pay equity
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on March 5, 2009

https://thereginamom.com/2009/03/05/iggy-the-idiot-part-i/

Building a wedge

Already, there are splits in Iggy’s Liberal caucus.  Two Newfoundland and Labrador Members of Parliament are threatening to oppose the federal budget unless there are amendments.  This is a result of constituent action.

If women are a constituency, then it makes sense that Canadian women contact the Liberal critic responsible for the status of women, Anita Neville, because the budget fails women in a huge way:

– continues the attack on pay equity in the civil service

– provides no support to the working poor or those living in poverty

– does nothing to provide desperately-needed childcare supports

– provides stimulus to male-dominated areas of the economy, further ghettoizing the “pink ghetto”

Mention any and all of these (& more) in your communications with the Liberal MP, Hon. Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre):

Parliament Hill Office

House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 992-9475
Fax: (613) 992-9586
EMail: Neville.A@parl.gc.ca
Web Site:* www.anitaneville.ca/
Preferred Language: English

Constituency Offices

Unit D – 729 Corydon Avenue,
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3M 0W4
Telephone: (204) 983-1355
Fax: (204) 984-3979

I mean, really, what century is this, anyway?

UPDATE:  As Beijing York suggests below, it wouldn’t hurt to also email the leaders of the opposition parties.  Duceppe.  Layton.  Ignatieff.

8 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 30, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in activism, Canada, pay equity, women
Tagged , ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 30, 2009

https://thereginamom.com/2009/01/30/building-a-wedge/

Jobs in the 2009 Budget

“Job stimulus spending is concentrated in employment sectors heavily dominated by men.”

YWCA of Canada

(thx, A)

3 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in Labour

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2009

https://thereginamom.com/2009/01/27/jobs-in-the-2009-budget/

Environment in Budget 2009

“As for the environment, fuhgeddaboutit because they sure did.”

Antonia Zerbisias, 27 January 2009, The Toronto Star

4 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in environment, Stephen Harper
Tagged ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2009

https://thereginamom.com/2009/01/27/environment-in-budget-2009/

2009 Budget & Women

“The budget also contains no mention of childcare spaces and maintains the attack on women’s ability to pursue pay equity complaints.”

— New Democratic Party of Canada

Leave a comment
by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2009

https://thereginamom.com/2009/01/27/2009-budget-women/

On today’s tax cuts

“Those making more will get more”
Gilles Duceppe, 27 January 2009, CBC-TV

(Link: TBA)

1 Comment
by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2009

https://thereginamom.com/2009/01/27/on-todays-tax-cuts/

An anti-woman rampage

As published in Regina’s Prairie Dog and Saskatoon’s Planet S.

AN ANTI-WOMAN RAMPAGE

Intentional or not, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered another bitchslap to Canadian women in the economic and fiscal update his finance minister, Jim Flaherty, delivered on Nov. 27.

Sure, he took swipes at political parties and unions and promised to sell off public assets, too. And he also attacked women’s right to equal pay for work of equal value within the federal civil service.

Harper apparently hates anything to do with equal rights for women. As a result, women don’t vote for him. Maybe that’s why instead of wooing us, he takes extreme measures to further punish us.

Just look what he’s done in the past: he smacked down a national child care plan, killed off the Court Challenges program, attacked women’s reproductive freedom by supporting Bill C-484, axed jobs at Status of Women Canada (SWC) and eliminated the word “equality” from its mandate, silenced advocacy groups, shut down community-based women’s organizations and stripped money from women’s agencies and programs.

And the list goes on.

Now, he spins a pay-out of “over $4 billion in pay equity settlements” as an extraneous expense for government? Hello? That’s money stolen from women! Women who performed work equivalent to men in the federal civil service were paid less simply because they were women. It’s money they earned. The Canadian Human Rights Commission said so in 1984. That was 24 years ago! In 1999, after 15 years of legal wrangling, the Federal Court of Canada agreed women had been short-changed and ordered the government to cough up.

Some women have died waiting for their fair share. But Harper’s revenge would see those payments slow down. And their right to pay equity subjected to contract negotiations.

And their right to strike eliminated.

Gilles Duceppe was the first to stand up to Harper, accusing him of using the economic crisis as an excuse to attack women’s rights. “[The government] has decided to attack women’s rights by submitting their right to pay equity to negotiation,” he said. “Since when are rights negotiable?”

Since when, indeed! Some women I know want Gilles as PM. Others, including the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights, say that “the prospect of a coalition government means that things are definitely looking up for women.”

No kidding! What would be worse for women than another day of Stephen Harper as PM? /Bernadette Wagner

Cross-posted at rabble.ca

6 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on December 24, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in Canada, feminism, governance, pay equity, Stephen Harper, women
Tagged , ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on December 24, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/12/24/an-anti-woman-rampage/

Belated Solstice Greetings

For you, dear readers, in celebration of the Winter Solstice:

From the vast void

She is born, a long, slow explosion of light.  Dark
specks sing through the eons
red and blue. A planet collects
songs and stories, gathers to spin
pretty around one star, learns
days from dust and liquids, heat and air,
breathes human life.  

			         Stardust, I am
alive and alone on this dark path, creating
					     space
safe to name truth,
overcome trouble, honour beauty
avoid denigration in a world consuming
itself in its frenzy for freedom from despair,
in a race lost to keeping up -- those Jones's
desperate to have it all, never arriving --
in a population swallowed, in a more-more campaign
for mutations processed, frozen, packaged
resold to tomorrow's consumers.

Ah, but our dreaming collective
finds small notes, sings big
bright stars of morning into lives,
rekindling joy in the return of light.

-- Bernadette L. Wagner

The season’s best to you and yours!

Leave a comment
by Bernadette Wagner on December 22, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in poets, winter solstice
Tagged ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on December 22, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/12/22/belated-solstice-greetings/

Harper continues to ignore will of Parliament

And I’m not referring to the prorogation perogative he was granted in order to avoid a motion of nonconfidence in Parliament.

No, I’m talking about the resolution Parliament passed in June, 2008, the one that says, “conscientious objectors to wars not sanctioned by the Security Council of the United Nations” should not be deported from Canada.  An Angus Reid poll conducted in June 2008 showed that 63 percent of Canadians (that number again!) agreed with allowing war resisters to stay in Canada.  That’s likely because they know the US invasion of Iraq was not sanctioned by the Security Council of the United Nations and is, therefore, an illegal war. Refresh your memory here.

Harper, however, doesn’t have to listen to Parliament, eh? Cuz he’s the Supreme Being, apparently;  he is above the law and certainly above the whims of a majority of Parliament, or so it seems.

Needless to say, I was a little miffed when this landed in my inbox today.   (Note:  There is an action item at the bottom of this post.)

War Resister Cliff Cornell Told to Leave Canada by Christmas Eve

Rivera Family to Get Decision on January 7

Toronto — In the latest of a series of deportation orders, Citizenship and
Immigration Canada has told war resister Cliff Cornell, of Nanaimo, BC, that
he must leave Canada by December 24, or face removal by force. Cliff,
originally from Arkansas, arrived in Canada in January 2005. He currently
works as an Assistant Manager of a retail store near Nanaimo, where he has
an excellent work record.

Cliff’s deportation order comes after similar orders for war resisters Corey
Glass, Jeremy Hinzman and his family, Patrick Hart and his family, Matt
Lowell and Dean Walcott. Like them, Cliff has begun to build a peaceful and
productive life in Canada and hopes to stay in his new country.

War resister Kim Rivera will receive a decision on January 7. Kim served in
the US Army in Iraq. She came to Canada with her husband, Mario, and their
two children, Christian (6) and Rebecca (4) in early 2007. Kim had a new
Canadian-born baby, Katie, on November 23, 2008.

The War Resisters Support Campaign continues to call upon the Harper
government to implement the will of Parliament, as expressed in a House of
Commons motion adopted on June 3, 2008. The motion recommended that
“…conscientious objectors to wars not sanctioned by the Security Council of
the United Nations,” such as the Iraq War, be allowed to remain in Canada
and apply for permanent resident status. It was adopted by a vote of 137-110
and also directed the Government of Canada to stop deportation proceedings
against all of the war resisters here.

I was further miffed when I called the office of the Minister Responsible to voice my concerns about this and the receptionist would not refer me to anyone who could speak about the issue to me.  She had been ordered to not refer telephone calls on this issue to anyone except the call centre.

I am not the only one concerned about this matter.  Sandra Finley, former leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, a woman who is going to court for her refusal to fill out a census form that would be processed by Lockheed Martin, an arms manufacturer, had an earlier conversation with a Kenney Executive Assistant who claimed to know nothing about the Parliamentary resolution,

I spoke with Ministerial Assistant to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney,:

Essentially I was talking with someone who knows very little about something
he should know a lot about.

It is disconcerting, to know that people in the Minister’s office, in the
Canadian Dept of Immigration, where this has been an on-going issue for a
long time, do not know the most basic of information.

I won’t go into all the details. Some of the back-and-forth:

Lyntner: – no, I am not aware of anything passed by the House of Commons
(that would prohibit the deportations).

(I supplied the date and nature of the motion passed, and mentioned that
the deportees are people who resisted an illegal war.)

Lyntner: – who says it was illegal?

Me: – I don’t believe you would challenge the fact that the Bush
Administration used lies as the basis for dropping bombs on Iraq? There
were no weapons of mass destruction, as claimed. And I don’t think you
would challenge the fact that the U. N Security Council refused to sanction
the war? … okay. There are international laws that prohibit a state from
just dropping bombs on other countries.

Lyntner: – at some point in all this he says “well, that’s your OPINION
that the war was illegal”.

Me: – International Humanitarian Law, also known as the Law on Wars
makes it illegal. It is not my opinion. It is IN FACT an illegal war.

Lyntner: – well who passed that law? A country has to sign these laws
before they are binding.

Me: – The United Nations passed the various conventions that make up
International Humanitarian Law and Canada is signatory to those treaties.
Google “International Humanitarian Law” or “Law of War” – you can find it
all.

Lyntner: – There are many different agencies (how can it be “international”
or “UN”).

Me: I am aware that there are many different agencies. But they all fall
under the rubric of the UN. There are International Laws that clearly make
the War on Iraq an illegal war.

Harper doesn’t care about anyone but himself and his own power.  We, as compassionate Canadians do and are taking action:
Contact Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney and ask him to:

• STOP deportation proceedings against U.S. Iraq war resisters, including
Cliff Cornell and Kim Rivera and her family; and
• IMPLEMENT the motion adopted by Canada’s Parliament to allow U.S. Iraq war
resisters to apply for permanent resident status.

Here are the numbers to call:

Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney
Call 613.954.1064

MP Jason Kenney’s Parliamentary office:
613.992.2235

Or email him at:
minister@cic.gc.ca
or
Kenney.j@parl.gc.ca

Please cc the opposition party critics if you email Jason Kenney:
Liberal party immigration critic Borys Wrzesnewskyj:
wrzesnewskyj.b@parl.gc.ca
NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow: chow.o@parl.gc.ca
Bloc Québécois immigration critic Thierry St-Cyr: st-cyr.t@parl.gc.ca.

2 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on December 17, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in activism, Canada, George Bush, Stephen Harper, USA, war

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on December 17, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/12/17/harper-continues-to-ignore-will-of-parliament/

It’s an anger-making day!

I’m angry today.

It’s -28 degrees Celsius here right now.  And with a 40+ km/h wind coming in from the north, it makes for a wind chill factor of about -45.  It’s the first day of real winter here on the prairies.

But that’s not what’s making me miserable.  I’ve lived in Saskatchewan all my life.  Cold, I can handle.

It’s abuse of power that has my blood boiling.  Earlier today, in a PS to his Journamalism post, pogge sent me to Paul Wells’  blog at Macleans.ca.  Paul strings together the true story of our Prime Minister’s disdain for Parliament, then summarizes his opinion:

In short, he’s been a bit of a twit, has our dear leader. It does us no good to have a Prime Minister who flies to Winnipeg and Peru singing Kumbaya if he can’t set foot in Parliament without bringing a blowtorch. He clearly cannot stand the place. That’s a problem because at some point, he’s going to need a functioning Parliament to get anything done.

Well, that’s a problem if he actually wants to do something. Turns out that’s a big “if.” It’s becoming more and more obvious that the impasse in the House of Commons is an expression of the Prime Minister’s own conflicted feelings about the place. He showed on the Afghanistan war that when he wants to he can lead a government that bends and concedes in pursuit of its goals. But that was about soldiers. He cares about soldiers. He has never convinced me he cares about the economy, or believes any government can do anything to affect its course. Build roads? Bail out car companies? Take advice from Jack Layton? He’d sooner cut off the opposition’s allowance, then hit the road to tell more fibs about Stéphane Dion.

From a springtime of committee chaos to a summer of ultimatums to a fall election, a December crisis, a tasty prorogue-y holiday feast, and the near certainty of another New Year psychodrama. I could swear there was a pattern in there.

There, in the comments section, I found a link from Robert, to this Toronto Star story.  Apparently, Mr. Harper does not need Parliament to get things done:

OTTAWA–The Conservative minority government is letting people take advantage of some tax measures in its fall economic statement, despite the fact the Tory fiscal plan hasn’t been passed by Parliament.

Ottawa issued a news release yesterday announcing that Canadians can take advantage of a proposal to reduce the minimum withdrawal from their registered retirement income funds by 25 per cent for 2008.

The Canada Revenue Agency has advised financial institutions that it can administer the proposed change before the law is passed, the release says. It also says if the proposal does not get passed by Parliament, the agency would not apply penalties to anyone who follows the proposal.

It’s a blatant abuse of the rule of law.  Apparently, Steve the Sweater Guy is above that.  I mean, we know that, don’t we?  Certainly, we witnessed it quite clearly when he broke his own fixed date elections law.

This action seems to fit well with what James Laxer has identified as Harper’s “paranoid style” of political maneuvering. Though the corporate media and the CBC praise Harper’s political acumen, Laxer cuts through the spin to the real deal:

By paranoid style, I mean, that Harper belongs to the resentful right, whose adherents understand the world in simplistic, binary terms, and depict those who disagree with them as the agents of endless conspiracies against the forces of righteousness. (A telling example of the paranoid style is the way Conservatives have taken to labeling the Liberal-NDP coalition as “un-Canadian”. This ludicrous term is lifted from “un-American”, an unsavory epithet that was much employed by McCarthyites during the 1950s who believed they had a corner on what it was to be American. Until the Harperites appeared, no politicians in Canada were so certain of their monopoly of virtue as to label their foes “un-Canadian.) [Go read the full post.]

Stephen Harper is absolutely paranoid that he may lose his reign on power and he will do anything to hold onto it.  He knows that since he has not produced a majority government for his right wing alliance after three elections his leadership will be under review.  It’s likely he would be replaced.  And there are already rumours about who might do that.

He is paranoid and my guess is he will hold desperately onto every power Parliament affords him right now and use it to undermine his opposition.  He will continue with more questionable acts, such as rule by Order-in-Council and edict, over the next few weeks. It’s a trick Grant Devine used in Saskatchewan and other rightwingers have used elsewhere and one I’ve been expecting.

Here’s hoping the coalition has the courage to see these treacherous acts for what they are and bring down this would-be dictator come budget day.

Addendum:  The Jurist over at Accidental Deliberations has also added to this.

But it seems clear that Harper would rather govern illegitimately by fiat rather than not at all. And every step the Cons take to evade the need for Parliament to pass Canada’s laws moves us further from anything that could possibly be described as democracy.

Bonus for making it this far:  Bruce.

3 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on December 13, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in Canada, governance, Stephen Harper
Tagged , ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on December 13, 2008

https://thereginamom.com/2008/12/13/its-an-anger-making-day/

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